Brand new knifemaker

[Bladepeek]

I got a call from one of our neighbors. Her 12(I think)year-old grandson is at camp in upper Michigan somewhere.

Here's the cool part. In this politically correct time, guess what he made in camp. 2 knives!

He's due back on Sunday and will be leaving Tuesday to go back to LA. He wants to go fishing and talk to me  

I haven't seen the knives yet, but I'm certain they will be praise worthy. If he didn't have a chance to make sheaths for them, maybe we can do that while he is here.

[just_a_hunter]

Awesome! Snap a pic and share it with us.

Congrats to the new knife smith. I'd take a hand made camp knife over a Buck any day!! I bet most of us would.

Todd

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Thats too cool. Pics would be appreciated.

Have fun guys.

[Bladepeek]

Well, I finally got a chance to meet this young man. He brought with him 2 knives he was working on. Unfortunately, they were made from some mild steel he bought at a hardware store.

So, we started from scratch with some 1095 I had on hand. I have to say I can't remember the last time I had so much fun working with anyone. This is one, very intense and talented young man. He noticed that most of the adjustments on my Burr King grinder were made with the allen wrench I keep tucked in a hole on my grinding bench. When I said I was going to change the angle of the platten to better fit his height, I had that wrench slapped in my hand. It was like working in an operating room (a very dirty one) with a skilled OR nurse    

We had very little time as he already had other engagements (fishing with Grandpa) so we just went sort of "flat out" trying to get as much done as fast as possible.

He liked the profile of one of the knives he brought with him, so we copied that.  We first filed a stop in with a file guide and then I showed him how to use the belt grinder. Since he already owned and used 1" x 30" Harbor Freight belt grinder, he picked it up very fast.

From that point on, when I saw him making a mistake, I'd explain why it was a mistake and he didn't do that again. It was almost freaky the speed with which he grasped ideas.

Long story short, we ran out of time with the blade ground to 220 grit. I explained how he needed to clamp the knife on a sanding board to hand rub it, but we went on to preparing a set of scales. Rather than using pins which would require clamping the knife for way more time than we had, we used bolts and round nuts to hold the scales without clamps.

He's on his way back to the LA area and the knife, the remainder of the bar of 1095 and a small damascus knife I had partially finished are being mailed to him. Time just went way too fast.

Any way, here are some pics of William, his knife and a justifiably proud grandfather.

 

 

 

 


 

 

[just_a_hunter]

AWESOME!!!

Todd

[Lin Rhea]

This is wonderful. You are to be highly commended yourself Ron. Let us know if we can help.

[Bladepeek]

Thanks guys.

Lin, you may well get a chance to help someday. He was asking what he should work on. I encouraged him to keep doing what he's doing, but save up for a forging class - that he would love every minute of it and be fascinated by what all you could make steel do when it's hot.

Honestly, if you ever find this young man in one of your classes, I think you will be amazed at just how fast he learns.

By the way, I showed him my Lin Rhea hunter and he couldn't get over the damascus pattern.

[Lin Rhea]

[Steve Nuckels]

Fantastic!

Steve

[Bladepeek]

Update on William's knife. He just sent me pics of the finished knife. I'll put them up here and then add his description of what he did and my response to him.

   

   

   

   

"here is the knife, I sanded it with 400, 600, then 800 grit in the blade itself and used my belt sander to finish the handle. Once it was done, I made a kydex sheath and attached a belt clip to it. All in all it went well, and you can no longer see the handle crack."

Dear Will,

Thanks for sending the pictures of your knife. I've been anxiously waiting to see how it turned out. There are also several knifemakers on Trad Gang that have been waiting to see the finished product, so I hope you won't mind if I post the pictures there.

 

As you know, we did everything twice as fast as we should have. The epoxy should have had a chance to set completely before we started work on the handle. Before we even put the handle on, we should have tested the edge to see if it was hard enough, but not too hard and brittle. Unfortunately, we did not have time to proceed as we should have, but raced through things as fast as possible.

 

Still, I think we came reasonably close on the heat treating. I know we got the edge hard and think the tempering heat was fairly close. I'm interested to see just how lucky we were. Once you have the blade sharpened, try cutting some pieces of scrap rope. cardboard, slicing newspaper, etc. and see how good the edge is. If our tempering temperature was a bit too low, the edge may still be a little brittle. If we went a bit too high, the edge will not hold the sharpness as long as it should.  It may be interesting to compare to one of your kitchen knives. At any rate, I think you have a very serviceable knife there.

 

I'd also like to give you a piece of advice, which you are free to accept or ignore. DON'T SELL THAT KNIFE!

 

Someone may offer to buy it, thinking that will encourage you. Believe me, you will some day wish you had it back to compare to your later work.

 

Thanks for sharing the pictures with me. I hope we get to spend some time together next year. I surely enjoyed the short time we had working together.

 

Best of luck.

 

Ron"

[Lin Rhea]

Boy that looks great! I wish my first knife looked that good. I think he's going to be a knife maker. Well done and my compliments to you Ron for the help and encouragement you've offered to Will.    

[Jack Guard]

Pretty cool !

[Anointed Archer]

Excellent Ron, way to pass on the TRADITION!      

[ron w]

         Nice Ron!!

[Ray Hammond]

Ron that's what its all about- in life, bowhunting, and knife making.  Well done, sir.

[Idahomike251]

My thoughts are as same as Lin's. That talented young man's knife is waaaaaay better than my first. Good advice from Ron about not selling the knife. I wish I kept mine to remind me of how far I have progressed with my hobby.
Ron, Thank you so much for posting.
Mike O